Friday, December 30, 2011

This is the first time I've written a post when I'm not in DC... weird.

But that's right, folks. I'm back in good ol' Oregon.

There really is nothin' like the Pacific Northwest.

If you haven't noticed, I'm an avid fan of my home.

If you're a newcomer to my blog, you'll notice I have a slightly unhealthy huge affinity for the nw.

I am multitasking at the moment - watching the cartoon Grinch (and if you were to ask my opinion, I think it's much better than the real one. But you didn't ask, so I won't say what I think.), updating my dad's iphone, and writing this post in my overly cluttered room full of all my belongings that are waiting to be sorted through before moving it all back to school. It's kinda stressing me out sitting in the chaos of it all surrounding me.

I'm going to write more about being back home in posts to come, but before I jump into all that excitement, I must share with you all about my last week in DC. And New York. With my great friend, Jessica. And about me trying not to pee my pants and burst into tears/laughter with excitement about coming home. It was a close call far too many times...

Ms. Jess came last Saturday night to DC and the first thing we did once we got onto campus was go on a run. It felt SO good to have an avid exerciser by my side again. I'm going to spare you pictures from that run, we were a little flustered from running.

Bright and early the next morning- less on the bright and more on the early since the sun wasn't even up yet- we lugged our shared duffle bag to Union Station to get on the 7 am Bolt Bus to NYC. The best part about that morning? This story right here:

The temperature was at freezing levels that night, but it wasn't a problem because there was no rain to freeze the roads, right? Wrong. Someone had used a large amount of water for whatever reason and it had ran onto the sidewalk that we were walking on and froze over night (you already know what's going to happen, I'm sure). We noticed the tiny frozen patch before stepping on it and proceeded with extra caution, walking extra slow, so we wouldn't slip. Well, the extra caution didn't do much. Right when we thought we were safely across, Jess's feet suddenly slipped out from under her, mind you- she was carrying the big duffle bag on her back, and slide tackled my legs out from under me and we both landed flat on our hinies laughing until our abs couldn't handle the pain anymore... and then continued laughing more. What makes the story better is that since it was 6 am, no one was around to see it, making it more awkward. Although, Jess would argue that that was a good thing. Leave it to us to slip on the only patch of ice on the almost two-mile walk to Union Station.

Nonetheless, we made it on time to catch the bus.

We got to NYC around noon and bee-lined it to Starbucks to wait for her friend, Kaitlyn, who we were staying in Hoboken, NJ with. Hoboken turned out to my mine and Jess's absolutely favorite place.

she got a super cute elf hat!

This is kaitlyn with perfect hair. It was her house that we stayed at.

Kaitlyn's apartment in Hoboken was the cutest thing we had ever seen. The heat was scarce and so Jess and I learned to bundle and layer to get warm and cozy... I kinda liked it (roommates, I hope you're reading this... ).

Jess and I spent all day Monday walking around New York. It was a blast.

(Jess and I cracked up all week at the amounts of individual pictures we have of each other on our own phones. You can see what I mean with these pictures. I love it. And it's so much better than taking photos of inanimate objects... which I would have done had she not been with me...)

Everything about Kaitlyn's life was "soo cute!!"- even straight down to her mailbox.

Kaitlyn's grocery store- "soo cute!"

I had to post this beaut. I wanted it really bad, but didn't have the bucks. AND it matched my nails that day. I wanted to say it was fate and just buy it somehow. Even if it meant no food for a week. I mean, it's just a week... right?

she was eating peanut butter... don't mind the awkward lips.

We laugh at this picture every time we look at it. Like fall over laughing.

Since we stayed just across the water in NJ, we got to see the New York City skyline at night. It was gorgeous!

she dressed like me this day!

NYC on the left, NJ on the right.

The bright building is the Empire State Building.

We rode back to Washington DC around 10 am the next day. The following days was a compilation of saying bye to friends, packing, and going out to dinner in random places in DC.

It was quite a stretch for her little arms to reach the bar on the metro.

In the midst of helping me pack.

The last night we were in DC, we went out to a couple places. At one bar we went to, we ran into my ceramics teacher (he was hearing, folks) and he bought us these sweet bottles of beer (and it was gluten free!). You can bet that we took the bottles home with us...

The day we flew home had to be the most stressful day of the week, what with our 9 bags total, most weighing close to 50 lbs. We traveled on bus, metro and plane, all in one day. We were happy to land in Oregon, to say the least.

I apologize for not posting anything for the past 2 weeks. I've barely even touched my computer. It's been great to be back and we'll see how this blogging goes now that I'm back on the west coast! Doesn't look too good at this point... wish me luck!